


In the Light

by Lady_of_Greenwood



Category: Star Wars
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-08
Updated: 2016-03-08
Packaged: 2018-05-25 12:55:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6195937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_of_Greenwood/pseuds/Lady_of_Greenwood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is a life after death. A light. The Force. And for Anakin there may just be forgiveness.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Light

**Author's Note:**

> *peeks in* So eh, I was told to, you know, post this here by a friend and that's what I'm doing now. I wrote this over dinner so if you find any typos please lemme know.

It should have been blinding - the vibrant colours, the bright sky, the glow of peace and love suffusing all with a genter and soothing white light - but it wasn't. It sank into him, into bones and flesh, deeper and deeper until it reached his wounded heart, melting the cold and dark shackles like ice under the twin suns of Tatooine.

  
His heavy burdens, laid upon his shoulders at a far too young age and corrupted by doubt and grief and anger, lifted onto the gentle breeze ruffling his hair, the grass beneath his boots, the robes around his shoulders.

  
He breathed the sweet scent of freedom, of life beyond life, of unconditional love he had not felt since he had pushed it away from himself with a dark determination nurtured willingly by himself and released by another. It still lingered at the back of his mind, digging in its claws to withstand the light beating it relentlessly back and away, but the sheer beauty of what lay before him banished it from his thoughts.

  
He took a deep breath, tasting forgiveness on his tongue and feeling it seep into his soul, and started walking.

  
Birds sang their gentle songs, or some beings that resembled them. They were small and glowed as if made of pure light, green and blue and the occasional violet flittering about. He watched them as they soared towards the sky, passing across the sun that was no sun and did not blind when he gazed upon it.

  
The grass and flowers he stepped on rightened themselves once he had passed, unbroken and full of life. He saw a tree, it's leaves greener than any he had ever seen and rustling like the waves of a sea when the wind bresting through them.

  
He kept walking. Something was calling to him, telling him to follow his heart to the distant horizon where a large structure - white and glistening, five spires reaching out to touch the wisps of cloud overhead - patiently awaited his arrival.

  
He felt as if he was being watched, but curiously he did not feel threatened. He felt...protected. Cautiously welcomed.

  
It lifted his heart and brought a spring to his step he could not remember having since his youth.

  
He walked and walked, small animals trotting along for a short moment before melting back into the knee high grass, rejoining their brethren. They too were made of light, beautiful and mysterious.

  
Just like...

  
After many long moments in which he felt the last dregs of darkness melt away from him, his boots struck solid stone, the first of many steps leading up to what appeared to be a Temple, achingly familiar yet so different.

  
It was white and inlaid with veins of silver that thrummed with energy he knew so well, from a dream long ago.

  
He ascended slowly toward the first landing where he somehow knew he needed to be. He was intercepted before he could reach it.

  
"Anakin."

  
He froze at the sound of this name, almost forgotten in time. Out of the corner of his eye he could see a tall figure, broad across the shoulders, the movements fluid and graceful. He knew who it was without seeing a face but still he was shocked when the man stepped into view.

  
Hastily he bowed. "Qui-Gon, sir."

  
Qui-Gon Jinn smiled gently at him, blue eyes twinkling merrily. He looked younger than Anakin remembered, as if a few years had been lost between his death and awakening in the Force.  
If this was the Force and not a hell disguised as one.

  
Qui-Gon chuckled. "This is no hell, my young friend," he rumbled. "This is indeed the Force, the light after life."

  
Anakin took a long, hissing breath. "But how?" he asked, doubts once again surfacing. Was he never to be free of them? "How am I here? After what I've done! I betrayed the Jedi, the Republic, and..." He trailed off, biting his lip.

  
A shadow fell across Qui-Gon's face, darkening the gentle glimmer in his eyes, but fled as quickly as it had come.

  
"And yet you are here," he observed, turning on his heel to lead the way up toward the lip of the stairs. Anakin fell in one step behind him, one to the left. The position of a Padawan, the position he himself had once occupied when before the Council. Only before the Council. "You have redeemed yourself."

  
He almost scoffed. Palpatine. A man who had once been like a father to him, who had used and manipulated him in the worst way imaginable. He had been a fool. He had paid the price willingly. For Luke, for Leia. His children. And Padmé's.

  
He was surprised to discover that her name did not feel like acid upon his soul anymore, did not make his lungs freeze with longing of air smelling like her. He had made his peace with her death, and with his role in it. There was no use denying it anymore.

  
"I killed Darth Sidious," he said.

  
"You did," Qui-Gon agreed.

  
Anakin swallowed. "And just like that you forgive me."

  
"No." Qui-Gon stopped, glancing over his shoulder. "The Force has forgiven you. And I always knew you would one day do the right thing." He sighed. "You have not done as the Force wanted, but as it needed you to."

  
Anakin nodded slowly. "What about..." He trailed off again, his own betrayal stopping his words in his throats, tying them into a tight knot.

  
_"You wear my brother, Anakin! I loved you."_

  
These words had echoed in his dreams for decades, over and over, mingling with his wife's pleas.

  
Anakin sighed. "He's here, isn't he?"

  
Qui-Gon, who by rights should be sending him away in a protective fury, nodded with a tight smile. "Yes, he's here."

  
They made the top of the stairs, the first landing where Anakin had been led before. By the Force, he assumed. Many people were gathered here, quiet conversations and loud laughter floating on the air.

  
He drew looks, some warmly welcoming, others polite, but none resentful. Such emotions did not exist in the light side of the Force.

  
He could see Yoda, small and green and somehow younger than he remembered though still ancient. He could see Mace Windu, _both_ his arms crossed lightly over his chest, some of the fierce wrinkles around his mouth absent. A group of younglings barrelled past him, screeching with delight as Aayla Secura walked after them briskly, a look of mock anger upon her beautiful face. They smiled at him, all three of them.

  
Qui-Gon led Anakin past the Jedi he had killed, whose death he had caused and none of them condemned him. They forgave him. But the one he wanted - needed - to see wasn't there.

  
Suddenly Qui-Gon stopped and held up a hand. "Wait here," he said. Then he left, stalking across the outside gardens Anakin could not remember from the old Temple.

  
Anakin watched him go, heart hammering in his chest despite the Force's efforts to soothe his fears when he saw the man Qui-Gon greeted with a fierce hug, a fatherly kiss to auburn hair.  
Obi-Wan Kenobi. Master, friend, brother. The one he betrayed worse than anyone else.

  
He watched his former master talk animatedly with Qui-Gon, saw them joke and laugh and tease, two men connected by a bond thicker than blood.

  
He looked good. Much younger than the day they had parted as enemies. Almost like the day Anakin had first met him, a long braid trailing down his chest. A Padawan braid. That explained much, if not all. Many seemed so much younger than they had been upon their deaths, others were unchanged.

  
The Force had given them the appearance of when they had last been truly happy.

  
He watched as Qui-Gon tugged gently at the long braid and then grew serious, nodding toward him. Toward Anakin.

  
Obi-Wan followed the gesture, saw Anakin. He froze for a long moment, and Anakin froze with him. They looked at each other for what felt like years, an endless moment. Their surroundings faded away, the voices and the laughter unimportant.

  
Obi-Wan jumped slightly when Qui-Gon's big hands settled on his shoulders. Anakin himself jumped when Yoda's gimer stick struck his shin. He had not heard the old master approach.

  
"Go, you should." Yoda fixed him with a penetrating stare. "Much to talk about you have."

  
Anakin swallowed, wanted to refuse, but even now Yoda was a figure of authority among them. Ancient and wise and so very very commanding. So he nodded and began walking once more.  
Qui-Gon moved away as silent as a shadow, the Jedi around them fell back.

  
It was only the two of them now, former master and apprentice, the embodiment of light and the one who had fallen deeper than any before.

  
Obi-Wan broke the silence first. "Anakin."

  
"Master."

  
"I'm no longer your master, Anakin."

  
Anakin swallowed again, his mouth suddenly dry. "You will always be my master."

  
Obi-Wan pressed his lips together in a tight line. "I see."

  
"I..." Words failed him. He didn't know what to say. Nothing he could say would ever make good what he had done.

  
_"You were my brother, Anakin! I loved you."_

  
Again he heard those words. They were mocking him with all he had broken, with all he had taken from himself and those he cared about. He tried to meet Obi-Wan's eyes, the blue and green that had always sparkled with selfless love for him, even when he had betrayed every Jedi in the galaxy.

  
"I'm sorry."

  
He looked up, shocked. "What?"

  
"I'm sorry," Obi-Wan repeated. "I failed you."

  
And that hurt more than anything he could have said instead. No accusation would have torn him apart worse than those three simple words.  
"No! You've done nothing wrong!" he objected hotly. "I should apologise, I'm the one who dishonoured your teachings. I betrayed the Jedi, killed Padmé, helped Palpatine turn our Republic into a tyranny. None of what happened is your fault, but mine. You always told me to release my anger and pride into the Force but I never listened to you. And Palpatine knew that and used it against me. I should have known! I should have--"

  
"Enough, Anakin!"

  
He froze again in answer to the commanding tone, bitter tears on his lips. He looked up, and met Obi-Wan's soft look with his own despair. There was that smile he had grown up with, the proud one he had seen so often. Longed for.

  
"Thank you," Obi-Wan said.

  
"For what?"

  
"For realising your own faults, and for overcoming them. For redeeming yourself." He sighed. "For coming home."

  
Anakin could do nothing but accept the warm hug he was pulled into. He clung to Obi-Wan in return, to his beloved brother, the man who had raised him. Who had forgiven him just like that.

  
He was home.

  
He really was home.

  
Home in the Force.

  
In the Light.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this little peek into what I think happens after death in the Star Wars universe. Feedback is always greatly appreciated!


End file.
